man; a good man, but not a rich one. He died and left me a little money. I was too young and inexperienced to engage in his business; I conquered my false pride, and determined to go to service. About the time that I had formed this resolution, a young man who had been apprenticed to my father, returned to our town. He possessed many good qualities, which blinded me to the evil parts of his character. I knew that his passions were violent, and that he was habitually indifferent to Religion. He paid his addresses to me; and I fondly thought that my influence as a wife might become the instrument of his reformation. We married; and by the help of friends engaged in the occupation which my father had followed. For a short time we were tolerably happy; but my husband neglected the public worship, and the private duties, of a Christian. My little boy was born. I became more importunate to my husband to think seriously. I could not bear that my child should have an example of irreligion in his parent. For oh, Madam! if the world smile upon us, and our path be smooth, and riches increase, and pleasures surround us, there will still be a void, if the heart is not with God; but if sorrows come, and sickness fall upon us, and poverty gather round us, and the world forsake us, where shall be our hope, but in those "treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt?" I was perhaps too importunate to my unhappy George. He became averse to my society. He began to be connected with loose companions. Our business went on badly;- -we got in debt;→my little Susan was born ;—and” (she covered her face with her hands and wept for a minute)" my little Susan was born, and--my George forsook me." The kind visitor took Mary affectionately by the hand, and implored her to compose himself. After a little pause she resumed her story.

"For the sake of my children I bore up against my sorrows. I endeavoured to carry on our business. But I was unsuccessful. Affairs got worse. I called the creditors together. They were kind and considerate. They would have had me continue my shop, and would have accepted a small composition for their debt. But I was determined not to risk their property. I sold every thing, and paid my debts to the extent of my ability. I had a trifle left. I opened a school. My neighbours supported me; and I could have brought up my family. But my poor boy began to hear about his unhappy father. A thoughtless urchin one day told him that his father was a rogue. I thought my child's heart would have broke. I determined that my little ones should not be made wretched by the knowledge of their parent's shame ;-I gave up my school, and came hither, where I was quite unknown. It is my husband's parish ; and though I would not willingly become burdensome, I would not in the extremity of misery, for my children's sake, refuse that support which the mer ciful laws have provided. May this last sorrow be spared me."

Mary looked up in her visitor's face, and saw that she was in bears. The good lady said nothing; but pressing her hand, left the cottage. In an hour she returned, followed by several children,

"Young woman," she said, "I have the fullest confidence in you; these are the children of my servants and tenants ;-take them under your instruction; make them as good and as religious as your self; it will be my duty to provide that your care shall procure you a competence."

Mary Williams entered upon her duties with alacrity. The liberality of her patroness soon placed every reasonable comfort within her reach. In a few years a female school upon an extensive scale was committed to her charge; and she saw herself the possessor of a neat house, a prolific garden, and an income beyond her well-regulated wishes. Her children were her great solace. They both manifested the best dispositions. Though she sometimes wept at the recollection of the blight which had withered her early love, and her domestic happiness, she poured out her thanksgivings when she looked at her boy and girl, saying in her heart, “Did ever any trust in the Lord, and was confounded? or did any abide in his fear, and was forsaken ? or whom did he ever despise that called upon him?”

The benevolent clergyman of the parish had assisted Mary Williams in the education of her boy ;-at the age of fourteen he possessed a deep sense of piety, upright principles, and a cultivated understanding. His kind friends undertook to apprentice him. He served his master faithfully and diligently. Susan had grown up into a blooming girl. She was devotedly attached to her mother, and looked forward with delight to the prospect of assisting her in her school, They both considered themselves orphans; for the faint remem→ brance of his father had passed across the infant mind of the boy as an incoherent dream; and the mother, though she never forgot her George, thought it her duty not as yet to impart to her children the knowledge of a parent's crime. She had never heard of him, except that he was gone to a foreign country.

Henry had been apprenticed three years, when his master offered to him permission to pass a few days with his mother and sister, at the season of Christmas. He gladly accepted the kindness. On the exe of the celebration of the Redeemer's nativity, the happy boy and girl went forth in their joy to collect holly and mistletoe from a neighbouring wood, with which they purposed to adorn their mother's cottage. The air was bitterly cold, but they hurried along in the cheerfulness of their health and innocence, unmindful of the blast, and unthinking of sorrow or penury. Their happy talk was interrupted by the moan of a fellow-creature. They looked round, and saw a famishing man lying by the way-side. The prin ciple of humanity was natural to them; they did not stop to deplore his sorrows, but they hastened to relieve them. The afflicted man spoke not. Henry was a strong lad, and his feeling for the wretched gave him additional strength. He raised the sinking traveller from the earth, and, with his sister's aid, slowly conveyed him towards their mother's cottage..

Mary Williams was engaged in preparing a frugal entertainment to welcome her Henry on the approaching festival. Her boy and

girl stayed from home until the night had closed. She became anxious. The door at length opened, and her children appeared, supporting a fainting and emaciated stranger. She looked a smile of approbation, and prepared to assist in the Christian duty of relieving the wretched. They seated the perishing man by their cheerful fire, and hastened to procure a cordial. The stranger opened his dim and weary eyes. Mary gazed for an instant; and then, with an agonizing shriek, fell upon his neck. It was her cruel, her prodigal, but her once-loved George. She forgot her wrongs; she thought only that he was the father of her children; that he was, perhaps, a dying penitent.

The wretched man was slightly roused at this act, but he speedily relapsed into unconsciousness. Mary's good sense pointed out to her the necessity of caution; she tore herself away, and ran to implore a neighbour's assistance. She represented the afflicted man to her friend, and to her children, as one whom she had recognized as a dear relative. Rest and nourishment were prescribed to him ;—in a few days he became sensible to the attentions which were shewn him; but he was visibly dying.

With an affectionate regard to his health, Mary did not dare to trust herself in his presence. But the anxious Susan was his constant nurse. The child's sense of the consolation of Religion was habitual; and she therefore thought it her duty to read the Word of God to the afflicted man. She and her brother were yet ignorant of the relation which he bore towards them, though they perceived that their mother was deeply interested in his fate. The unhappy man was at first pained by this endeavour of the lovely and innocent girl; he was next indifferent; but when he sometimes heard her, as she fancied him asleep, praying for his recovery, and as the morning and evening hymn of that pious household came upon his ear, his mind gradually changed; and he at length listened with attention to the inspired Word which the affectionate child delighted to read to him. He was particularly regardful of those consolatory passages which proclaim the efficacy of a sincere repentance, and recalled his interesting instructor again and again to the parable of the Prodigal Son. He one day burst into a flood of tears, and requested to see a Minister of God.

The heart of his yet unknown Mary rejoiced at this determina tion. She hurried to her kind pastor, and at once explained the wish of the afflicted man, and the circumstances of her relation towards him. The clergyman entered the room of sickness. The penitent sufferer briefly detailed how the thoughts of religion had been awakened by the dear child who attended him, and without reservation related the cruelty of his conduct to his wife and children. He had suffered every species of calamity, which he hoped might be some atonement for his crime; and his greatest anxiety was to hear whether those beings whom he had so injured were alive. If he could receive their forgiveness he should die happy. The kind Minister gradually revealed to him that his daughter now stood beside him, and

that a superintending Providence had permitted her to be the instrument of his repentance. It is impossible to paint the affecting scene which followed. The son, and lastly the wife, of the afflicted pros digal, were introduced to him; and amidst the tears of all present, (the good clergyman not excepted,) his Mary gave him the most şolemn assurance of her forgiveness and her love. He lingered a few days, and then expired. EDITOR-K?

ADVICE TO MASTERS AND APPRENTICES, BY THE REV. DR. GLASSE.

An apprentice is a servant for a limited time; but differing from other servants in being more closely bound, under a mutual covenant of maintenance and support, instruction and care, on the part of the master; and of sobriety, diligence, and obedience, on the part of the apprentice. All this is well set forth in the indentures, which should not only be distinctly read, when the indentures are executed, but should also be frequently read over, and carefully considered by every master and apprentice.

A well-disposed apprentice generally sets off with fair promises of good conduct, and professes a desire to discharge his duty faithfully, and endeavour to make himself useful to those about him. But experience shews us, that through the corruption of human nature, and through the evil influence of bad examples, too many young persons are drawn aside from the path, in which for a time they seemed determined to walk, as good servants ought to do.

The master, it must be acknowledged, is too often careless of what is as much his interest as his duty; in not taking particular care that his apprentice be duly attentive to the services of religion on the Lord's Day, on which day the master is too generally absent from home, leaving the apprentice unprotected and unrestrained. This may be considered as the foundation of every subsequent irregu larity; for where religion does not early engage the mind and affec tions, the devil, the world, and the flesh, will not fail to take the advantage; and incline the poor deluded youth, first, to a neglect oft his duty towards God; and then, of all his other duties, to his master, his neighbour, and himself. This is the beginning of sorrows, both to the apprentice and the master: the former grows indifferent about giving satisfaction, while the latter has too much cause to be dissatisfied. As the apprentice advances in the knowledge of the art and mystery of the trade which he is learning, if his mind is not well-disposed, he will soon begin to think, that, if he were not under restraint, he might be now able to do something for himself; and this mischievous sentiment he will be sure to hear confirmed by other apprentices, as ill-affected as he is: forgetful of the care which was taken of them, when they could do little or nothing for themselves; regardless of the obligation under which they lie to their master, who has hitherto performed the duty of a parent towards

them, they begin to be sour and murmuring; discontented with every thing, and every person about them; reluctant in their obedience; negligent in their business; impatient of reproof; consider ing their masters in the light of tyrants, set in authority over them, instead of friends, appointed to watch over them for their good, and to lay the foundation of their future prosperity and happiness. They now consider every command as an unreasonable imposition, and allege that this or that made no part of the original covenant; though upon examination they will find it extends to any reasonable command that a conscientious master may think proper to give. If once this impatient desire of emancipation and independence is indulged and suffered to prevail, there is no instance of irregularity that the apprentice will not be guilty of, in order that a separation from his master may by any means take place.-But the youth will do well to remember, that, as there are laws to secure the apprentice against ill treatment from his master, there are also laws to punish him for obstinacy, and wilful disobedience, and contempt of the obligations under which he is laid by his indentures. The number of apprentices committed to prison for misconduct, ought to discourage every sensible lad from following their evil practices; while the far greater number of youths, that have gone through their appointed time of servitude, with honour and advantage to themselves, and satisfaction to their employers, offers great encouragement to such as wish to be happy, and to endeavour to do their duty diligently and conscientiously in that state of life to which it has pleased the providence of God to call them.

The way to prevent a young apprentice's being discontented at his first setting out in the world is, not to be too sanguine in his expectation of a life of ease and indulgence. He will do well to prepare himself for difficulties, from which he is not to suppose any of the inferior stations are exempted. Such as are not born to affluence are born to labour; to support themselves, and such as belong to them, by a virtuous and honest industry. When the apprentice is bound to an employment, from which future benefit is expected to arise, the first necessary step has been taken for his well-doing; and the rest is, through the blessing of God, in a great measure dependent on himself. This blessing he must not fail to ask for, constantly, in his prayers; never suffering himself to be laughed out of his religion; nor being ever ashamed of professing himself to be, what he is by name-a Christian. He may, perhaps, be called by some reproachful name, but he is not to regard it; but by a regular and constant attention to his duty, to be careful not to deserve either censure or ridicule.

To sum up his duty in a few words :

Let him fear God and honour the King.

Let him submit to such as are set over him, in all things lawful. Let him continue constant in his public and private religious duties, and particularly on the Sabbath Day.

Let him be sober and temperate in all things.